Portrait of War provides a different take on the United States participation in the First World War. As the name suggests it is a collection of a visual depiction of the war, focusing on the American involvement. This unique premise follows the perceptions of 8 U.S. Army Soldier-artists recruited by the military to escort the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in Europe (Alfier, 2007). Despite only one of them having any military training prior to their involvement, they were recruited as Captains to help them utilize special passes provided by the upper echelon that allowed them access to the front lines, these men were given relatively free reign to record what they saw on canvas (Alfier, 2007). Despite the pressures from various sources these men asserted their independence and disregarded pressures to portray what they saw as propagandists (Alfier, 2007). Though they did not purposefully paint their portrayals as propaganda tools, their paintings tended to act as such. Their interpretations were all the more powerful because they provided a visual recreation of the hardships of a type of war that had never been seen before. As such, in many cases they could not help but act as propaganda for the pro-war cause within the United States, playing on the emotions of the American people to support the doughboys (Alfier, 2007).
The evolution of the move towards support of the involvement in the war began with the country supporting neutrality at the outset of the war. The key to being neutral at the outset was the ability to trade with both sides. But the combination of German submarine activity and the British blockade of German ports tilted the Americans hand towards the Allies. Demonstrating the political regimen that would result in his 14 Points and a push for a League of Nations, Wilson tried to keep the US from the war by pushing for “peace without victory”, where both sides would come to agreements and resolve without either getting the upper hand (Murrin,1999).
But the Zimmerman note combined with the rise of the communists in Russia turned the U.S. towards actively participating behind what Wilson deemed to make world safe for democracy (Murrin, 1999). With this, the American war machine mobilized and sent over a million men, the AEF, under the command of General John Pershing, to Europe in 1918, with the war still in doubt. The fighting at key battles of the Marne, and Belleau Wood in the summer of 1918 (Murrin, 1999) were some of those captured in art by the 8 artists depicted in Portrait of War. The trench warfare, use of tanks and poison gasses (Murrin, 1999) had never been experienced in combat before and their illustrations brought these atrocities to life (Alfier, 2007). They also were able to illuminate the fierce fighting in the Meuse-Argonne in the fall (Murrin, 1999), as the Allies pushed the Germans out of France. As the war ended the Americans emerged in the opposite position from when it began. At first the U.S. was reluctant to join, quite willing to be on the outside looking in, and when it ended the United States had become a force to be dealt with in the world, exemplified by President Wilson’s 14 Points being the heart to the Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended the war (Murrin, 1999).
Portrait of War is a look at war from an artist’s point of view. As such it can be powerful for it gives those who examine its contents the freedom to take what they see and personalize their interpretations. The author does provide further insight by including biographies of each of the 8 artists. He apparently conducted first hand research in providing copies of their work. The article represents a side of the war the vast majority of people never consider. In the course of studying or reading about war, it is rare that one thinks outside the of the soldiers’ experiences, to think of those who are there for another purpose. These men were at the front lines, as such, they put their lives on the line, but not to fight or to kill an enemy, but to observe and record what they saw so that others could begin to gather the same appreciation for the horrors of war. Especially so the First World War, which introduced more intense killing tools as previously mentioned. While the author could have perhaps included a literary response from the 8 artists on their experiences, it would have taken away from the reader’s freedom of interpretation. A potential future path might be for the author to include an addendum of sorts that has various key paintings only with interpretations from a number of varied readers. It would also be interesting to combine some of these artistic representations of WWI with those of other 20th century wars, WWII, the Korean and Vietnam Wars in particular. An even more stark depiction of how war has changed would be to contrast artist renderings of the War in Afghanistan now against WWI and show how war has changed in a full century.
References
Alfier, J., Mjr. (2007, Aug. & sept.). Portrait of War [Review]. Military review, 87(2), 119.
Murrin, J. M. (1999). Liberty, equality, power: A history of the American people (2nd ed.
Vol. 2) (pp. 763-773). Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College. Print.
